How To Promote Your Class

There’s a world of opportunity in promoting your classes beyond the basic list of course codes and titles. Developing your course section listing and preparing promotional materials is a quick and easy process and a chance to show students that this topic is one of both interest and of value to them.  

There are three main elements to promoting a course. You do not have to do all three, but each adds value and they strengthen each other:  

1. Develop the course section listing.  

This may be done by the instructor assigned to the class or by the department’s site editor.  

The course section listing is pulled into the CHSS website from the schedule of classes, and combines catalog information on courses, schedule information and other details on classes, links to the instructor's bio, and links to other sections of the same course. This is an automatic process. It is the descriptive elements that need to be added. A strong course section listing includes these components: 

Compelling text: a summary of the class content and learning objectives, communicating to students why they should take your class. Ideally, this text would be 1-2 paragraphs.  

Syllabus: include the class syllabus so students can see the readings and understand the structure of the class. 

Promotional image: University Libraries’ guide on “Finding Images for Classroom Use” provides resources that are available for commercial use.  You can also create a unique poster image using Canva, or other graphic design tools. Here is an example from WGST: 

OR 

Promotional video: Create a class promotional video, such as this one for African and African American Studies course on Black Psychology. Please follow these guidelines for filming at home to ensure your video is properly oriented, lit, and shot.  

In order for a video to be embedded on the website, it must have a hosting platform (ie. Youtube). It cannot be uploaded directly to the website. If your department has a Youtube Channel, upload the video to the Youtube Channel and then embed into the course description via the simple field.  

If your department does not have a Youtube channel: 

  • After filming, upload your file to the faculty class video Dropbox.  
  • The CHSS marketing and communications team will upload the video to the CHSS YouTube Page.  
  • Embedding the video will be the responsibility of the department site manager. Instructions for embedding a video can be found on here.  

To learn how to add these components to your course section listing, please refer to the CHSSWeb help resource on course sections. 

2. Create an article in CHSS Web promoting the course section.  

This step will be completed by the department site editor.  

There are a few ways you can do this. The easiest method is to simply associate the course section with the article. When you do this, clicking on the article will immediately take the user to the course section listing.  

  1. In CHSSWeb, create a new article.  
  2. Compose a title: something as simple as the course number and course title is fine, but it is better if you can write a title which adds interest. 
  3. Write a brief, one- or two-sentence summary of the course as the Article Excerpt.  
  4. Attach a thumbnail image. This can be the same image used in the course section listing. 
  5. Associate the course section with the article. 
  6. Copy the URL of the course section listing.  
  7. In the Main Content editing section, paste the link into the URL Link field.  
  8. That’s it!  
  9. Click save. The article will now appear in the “News” section of your website.  
  10. If you want to feature the course on your site’s home page, refer to the step-by-step instructions on CHSSWeb for “Featuring Articles to Homepage” 

If you want to promote more than one course at the same time, talk to the CHSSWeb team about your options. 

3. Promote on social media. 

  1. Depending on the channels your department has, create social media posts that include the course listing link.  
  2. Tag CHSS in your posts, so the dean’s office can amplify through their social channels as well.  
  3. Reach out to the CHSS marketing and communications team (chssmc@gmu.edu) to include your course in #TakeThisCourseThursday. 

Have questions about posting frequency? Creating a platform-specific post? Reach out to the CHSS marketing and communications team (chssmc@gmu.edu) to start a conversation about improving your social media.  


Promoting your class is a chance to show students your passion for the subject, and to encourage them to explore and engage with your area of academic expertise. A robust course section listing also allows students to make informed decisions when registering for classes, as they are able to see class content, goals, and expectations. Any of these three parts of promoting a class can be done independently. However, you’ll get the most value by employing all three. We hope that these practices become the standard practices for all courses.  

If you have a creative idea for your course section listing, but aren’t sure of the capabilities of the website? Reach out to the CHSSWeb Team (chssweb.gmu.edu) to talk through your idea and brainstorm the possibilities.  

Happy promoting!